Recommendations for a 25w, 240v soldering iron, please?

I have an Ersa soldering station with two different size irons that can be plugged in. It's a few decades old now and at one point I had to solder the potentiometer that regulates the temperature back on because it got bumped lugging it around. No complaints at all, and I believe the price is somewhat less than Weller, with the quality being at least as good. The irons and tips are excellent and have lasted all this time (I treat them well though).
 
kolster said:
Why have people recommended Weller irons? they are indeed very good, but expensive and aimed at the professional market, and the requirements were stated quite clearly,

"I'm a very occasional user for modelling, general purpose and a few boaty tasks"

"I don't want to pay a fortune for a professional electricians iron but neither do I want to buy a piece of junk"

For the work that I do which sounds very similar, I am very pleased with my 25W Antex which I have been using for many years and on the boat for normal wiring I use a 12V iron of the same size which I think I got from Lidl, I do use Lead/Tin solder which I have bought off eBay.
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Antex aren't bad quality and would be my second choice but they aren't temperature controlled to the best of my knowledge and it's much harder to get parts for them as they age. If the OP had bought a Weller 40 years he probably wouldn't need to buy a new one now. Just because it's used infrequently doesn't mean it doesn't need to be decent - Weller are used as much by amateurs as professionals I suspect.
 
billcole said:
I have an Antex 50W temperature controlled iron which might be a good compromise between the expense of a Weller and the limitations of the smaller non controlled Antex and others.
Its quite compact as the control is in the handle, not a separate box, so it's not much bigger than the non-controlled irons, therefore not too bulky to stow on the boat. Model number is TCS50.
I've had mine for a few years now without problems
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If Antex do temperature controlled irons then I agree completely.
 
kolster said:
Why have people recommended Weller irons? they are indeed very good, but expensive and aimed at the professional market, and the requirements were stated quite clearly,

"I'm a very occasional user for modelling, general purpose and a few boaty tasks"

"I don't want to pay a fortune for a professional electricians iron but neither do I want to buy a piece of junk"

For the work that I do which sounds very similar, I am very pleased with my 25W Antex which I have been using for many years and on the boat for normal wiring I use a 12V iron of the same size which I think I got from Lidl, I do use Lead/Tin solder which I have bought off eBay.
Click to expand...

Because you have to be really good at soldering to get a good result with cheap irons and solder. People seem to think that soldering is simple, far from it, there are 9 distinct stages and the definitive book on soldering is about an inch and a half thick!

Would you use a blunt knife to carve the sunday roast? No, why? Because a blunt knife makes a rotten job of it.
 
Dougal Tolan said:
Would you use a blunt knife to carve the sunday roast? No, why? Because a blunt knife makes a rotten job of it.
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True, but you don't need a premium Japanese folded steel carving knife.. a decent cheap one at £15 will do. Sure, if your day job is carving roasts, you might indeed require a professional knife, but for the occasional job, you don't, surely?
 
gjgm said:
True, but you don't need a premium Japanese folded steel carving knife.. a decent cheap one at £15 will do. Sure, if your day job is carving roasts, you might indeed require a professional knife, but for the occasional job, you don't, surely?
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You just beat me to it with a reply 'gjgm', this is mine, a bit late but very similar thoughts.

No, we would buy a reaonably priced knife to suit our usage, my son who is a professional chef would probably pay 10 times more than we would, but they will both do what they are designed for,

'The Independent' review lists the '10 Best Carving sets' carving sets from £19.94 to £292.50. and they all get excellent reviews.

Good soldering needs some practice and good joint preparation even with the best irons.
 
Weller irons are not exactly universally regarded as 'top end' in industry.
You can pay more for Metcal, Pace or several other systems.
Some of these are quite expensive to run, if you need a variety of tips they are expensive and don't last forever.
The higher temp of lead free kills bits quickly.

There are also various flavours of Weller iron.
The TCP series is a classic basic tool for a technician.
Antex also make a huge range, or have done over the years.
 
A sincere thanks to all suggestions, very much appreciated.

My 40 year old Griffin iron has now been consigned to the bin. Looking through drawers in the garage, I've found an even older 15w iron. Made by Henley Solon. Just plugged it in and it seems to still work.

Based upon your inputs, I've bought a medium duty Weller 40w.
 
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